From the tennis courts of Troy to leading global business resilience consulting, Katie Koetke has built a career on balancing challenges, embracing mentorship, and turning lessons into leadership.
Finding Balance at RPI
When Katie Koetke arrived at RPI from rural Maine, she expected to follow the well-worn family path of engineering. The youngest of three siblings to attend RPI, she started as a Biomedical Engineering major while also competing as a member of the varsity tennis team. But during her first year she discovered a critical truth: she loved science but did not want to spend her career in a lab. That realization sparked a bold pivot, adding a degree in Business and Management through the Lally School while staying committed to tennis.
Managing two demanding majors while playing Division III tennis was not easy. “Freshman year was a reckoning,” Katie admits. “I thought I was smart coming out of high school, and then suddenly I was juggling engineering classes, tennis practices, and a completely new environment. I had to learn time management the hard way.”
Athletics gave her structure: daily practices provided discipline, teamwork, and stress relief. “Knowing I had tennis every day from 4 to 7 p.m. forced me to schedule everything else, including classes, labs, and study time, around it. I still use that same block-scheduling method in my career today.” Katie’s women’s tennis teammates became her closest support network, sharing study strategies, past assignments, and life advice that helped her balance the pressures of academics and athletics.
The Journey Is Different for Everyone
Her family added another layer to that RPI experience. The youngest of three siblings, she overlapped with both her brother and sister on campus, a rare experience for a first-generation RPI family from rural Maine. All three shared a love of STEM and athletics, yet their RPI journeys carried them in very different directions. “We all had the same foundation, but RPI gave each of us the chance to find our own path,” Katie reflects. It is a reminder that the RPI experience is never one-size-fits-all. The journey is different for everyone.
The Power of Mentorship
As Katie carved out her own identity at RPI, one mentor became a steady guide: Professor Peggy McDermott. From helping her resolve scheduling conflicts to encouraging her career exploration, McDermott offered both practical solutions and personal support, remaining a trusted advisor well beyond graduation.
Katie credits those conversations with shaping how she approaches leadership today. “My role now is often to be that sounding board for my team, to listen first, to ask the right questions, and to let them find their own answers,” she explains. It is the same kind of guidance she received at RPI, now passed forward to the colleagues she leads.
Early in her own leadership journey, Katie learned that giving feedback is a skill in itself. “I was too short at times, or did not explain enough,” she admits. To improve, she invited upward feedback from her team, asking them how she could communicate more clearly and effectively. That practice not only helped her grow, but it also strengthened trust and openness within her teams. “It is something I still do today,” she says.
Building a Career in Resilience
After graduation, Katie began her career in consulting, eventually founding the Swiss-based resilience team at EY. There, she developed crisis management frameworks for global pharmaceutical and biotech clients before taking the entrepreneurial leap to start her own consulting firm. “It was like leaving my baby to start a new one,” she says of transitioning out of EY. But the move gave her the autonomy to set her schedule, lead her own team, and stay ahead of industry shifts like AI-driven risk management.
Memorable Business Moments
For Katie, the most rewarding experiences are when preparation meets reality. She recalls running a ransomware crisis simulation for a client, and within months that client called back to say the real incident had occurred. Thanks to the exercise, they responded decisively, minimized damage, and got back online quickly. “It was incredibly satisfying to know the work directly helped them in a real crisis,” she says.
Life Today
Now balancing entrepreneurship with parenthood, Katie still carries the lessons she first practiced at RPI: blocking time, setting priorities, and respecting boundaries. “Guarding my time is critical,” she explains. “Most things can wait until tomorrow. But my family cannot.”
Looking back, Katie credits RPI for shaping not just her skills but her mindset. “The lessons build on each other, from the classroom to early career to consulting today. It was the foundation for making me a good consultant and leader.”